Thanks to the amazing folks at resin.io there is now a containerized application deployment platform for the Parallella board enabling super easy workload scheduling for a fleet of thousands of Parallella computers across the globe with the push of a button.

We intend to offer “supercomputer.io” capacity for free to academic researchers working in the field of machine learning. Researchers at Google, Facebook, Baidu, and Microsoft are making steady progress with deep learning algorithms thanks to virtually limitless resources. What if this kind of computing power could be available to all researchers for FREE?

If we can get 1,000 boards connected to supercomputer.io, researchers would have a 18,000 CPU supercomputer at their disposal, putting it in the same class as some of the computers on the Top500 while consuming less than 5 KW. With 2 ARM A9 cores, the Xilinx FPGA logic, and 16 Epiphany CPU cores, this would arguably be the most efficient supercomputer on the planet!

Based on conversation with countless Parallella owners over the last year, I can tell you that “time” is a scarce a commodity as ever. If you haven’t turned on your Parallella yet, PLEASE help us put it to good use! Too much time and money was spent for the Parallellas to gather dust in some desk drawer. Let’s at least build something useful out of it.

Thanks for reminding us that there are still places that charge based on traffic.

To make this an effective machine, we have to minimize bandwidth as much as possible. The boot image is about 1GB and after that it will depend on workload. It seems VERY unlikely that we will get to 1G/day, but we’ll definitely keep it in mind for all participates.

Suppose one is a hardware developer and wants to extend the power of the Parallela with additional acceleration in the FPGA logic, and still contribute to this with this additional acceleration (e.g. additional Microblaze cores, specialized cores, etc..). Would that be possible?

Otherwise, great initiative! Would love to join, as soon as I get a hold of a Parallela 🙂

I dont have any parallella boards, but I would like to help. Maby by donating some Internet? I got 100Mbit fibre, that can be upgraded to 300/300 at a minimum cost. Or, I can use the Gibabit line where I work.
I dont know what kind of hardware you need, but I may be able to find something.

This is a great idea, and in principle I would be delighted to contribute the Parallella boards I have when not in use.

However, as an IT professional I have to stop and ask you: what about security?!? You are asking folks to plug a machine into their home or office LAN and allow it to be remotely controlled by someone else.

There needs to be a LOT more details about how all this works and how you intend to audit the OS Image and other code involved for security leaks on an on-going basis, before anyone who thinks seriously about their network security (which emphatically includes me) will allow this on their network.

This is the first time I put my Parallella board to run. Linaro worked fine and now it’s running Resin OS at home.
Security is a very important issue. I’d like to leave the board running at office, but I don’t feel comfortable due to these security issues.
I can still have access to my board or the board can only be accessed by Resin.io applications?
How many Parallella cores can be fitted in the FPGA?

Is there any way I can go on an email list as being willing to put my Parallella board on line to resin.io when there is a need?
I have an SD card with the image on it and it connects to supercomputer.io. I also want to use the board in its Linaro configuration to play and learn. It seems wasteful to leave the resin configuration connected on line when there is no task for it to perform. A request by email when it looks like there would be work for it would persuade me to swap out the Linaro SD card and boot up the resin.io card and leave it on line till the task is completed.
I love the idea of distributed computing, I supported SETI for several years and would love to have my Parallella as part of this initiative. Could you think about this please? An email to all the kickstarter backers and those like me who bought early on asking them to register their boards as participants when needed would, I am sure gain many like me who want to be able to give their cores to the project when they are actually needed. Cliff Surgeoner